1. Field of the Invention
The invention is concerned with isotope separation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Commonly, separation of isotopic species relies on a difference in size or mobility which is directly related to the atomic weight change due to varying neutron content. Examples include diffusion separation, sometimes aided by increased temperature, centrifugation, etc. In general, separation efficiency has been rather low; and it has been necessary to resort to a number of separation stages. See V. S. Letekhov, 180, Science, pages 451-458 (1973) for a review of such processes.
The development of the laser and associated technology results in the availability of sharply defined radiation wavelengths, and a number of workers have designed separation procedures around the concept of selective absorption. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,443,087 and 3,444,377. Such procedures, which generally rely on electric field separation of selectively excited species have not resulted in efficient separation. Limitations are probably due to the very small differences in absorption levels for different isotopic species, as well as to collision excitation (scrambling) during the final separation stage.